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Leatherback Sea Turtle
The leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) is the largest of all living sea turtlesand the fourth largest modern reptile behind three crocodilians.[3][4] It is the only livingspecies in the genus Dermochelys. It can easily be differentiated from other modern sea turtles by its lack of a bony shell. Instead, its carapace is covered by skin and oily flesh.Dermochelys coriacea is the only extant member of the family Dermochelyidae. Ecology and life history Habitat Leatherback turtles can be found primarily in the open ocean. Scientists tracked a leatherback turtle that swam from Indonesia to the U.S. in an epic 20,000 kilometers (12,000 mi) foraging journey over a period of 647 days.[5][31] Leatherbacks follow their jellyfish prey throughout the day, resulting in turtles "preferring" deeper water in the daytime, and shallower water at night (when the jellyfish rise up the water column).[13] This hunting strategy often places turtles in very frigid waters. One individual was found actively hunting in waters that had a surface temperature of 0.4 °C (32.7 °F).[32] Its favored breeding beaches are mainland sites facing deep water and they seem to avoid those sites protected by coral reefs.[33] Feeding Adult D. coriacea turtles subsist almost entirely on jellyfish.[5] Due to their obligate feeding nature, leatherback turtles help controljellyfish populations.[3] Leatherbacks also feed on other soft-bodied organisms, such as tunicates and cephalopods.[34] Pacific leatherbacks migrate about 6,000 miles (9,700 km) across the Pacific from their nesting sites in Indonesia to eat Californiajellyfish. One cause for their endangered state are plastic bags floating in the ocean. Pacific leatherback sea turtles mistake these plastic bags for jellyfish; an estimated one third of adult leatherbacks have ingested plastic.[35] Plastic enters the oceans along the west coast of urban areas, where leatherbacks forage; with Californians using upwards of 19 billion plastic bags every year.[36]Several species of sea turtles commonly ingest plastic marine debris, and even small quantities of debris can kill sea turtles by obstructing their digestive tracts.[37] Nutrient dilution, which occurs when plastics displace food in the gut, affects the nutrient gain and consequently the growth of sea turtles.[38] Ingestion of marine debris and slowed nutrient gain leads to increased time for sexual maturation that may affect future reproductive behaviors.[39] These turtles have the highest risk of encountering and ingesting plastic bags offshore of San Francisco Bay, the Columbia River mouth, and Puget Sound. Life history Like all sea turtles, leatherbacks start as hatchlings, climbing out of the sands of their nesting beaches. Birds, crustaceans, other reptiles, and people prey on hatchings before they reach the water. Once in the ocean, they are rarely seen before maturity. Few turtles survive this period. Dermochelys juveniles spend more of their time in tropical waters than do adults.[34] Adults are prone to long-distance migration. Migration occurs between the cold waters where mature leatherbacks feed, to the tropical and subtropical beaches in the regions where they hatch. In the Atlantic, females tagged in French Guiana have been recaptured on the other side of the ocean in Morocco and Spain.[28] Mating takes place at sea. Males never leave the water once they enter it, unlike females which nest on land. After encountering a female (who possibly exudes apheromone to signal her reproductive status), the male uses head movements, nuzzling, biting, or flipper movements to determine her receptiveness. Females mate every two to three years. However, leatherbacks can breed annually. Fertilization is internal, and multiple males usually mate with a single female. This polyandry does not provide the offspring with any special advantages.[41] While other sea turtle species almost always return to their hatching beach, leatherbacks may choose another beach within the region. They choose beaches with soft sand because their softer shells and plastrons are easily damaged by hard rocks. Nesting beaches also have shallower approach angles from the sea. This is a vulnerability for the turtles because such beaches easily erode. Females excavate a nest above the high-tide line with their flippers. One female may lay as many as nine clutches in one breeding season. About nine days pass between nesting events. Average clutch size is around 110 eggs, 85% of which are viable.[5] After laying, the female carefully back-fills the nest, disguising it from predators with a scattering of sand.[34][42] Cleavage of the cell begins within hours of fertilization, but development is suspended during the gastrulation period of movements and infoldings ofembryonic cells, while the eggs are being laid. Development then resumes, but embryos remain extremely susceptible to movement-induced mortality until the membranes fully develop after incubating for 20 to 25 days. The structural differentiation of body and organs (organogenesis) soon follows. The eggs hatch in about sixty to seventy days. As with other reptiles, the nest's ambient temperature determines the sex of the hatchings. After nightfall, the hatchings dig to the surface and walk to the sea.[43][44] Leatherback nesting seasons vary by location; it occurs from February to July in Parismina, Costa Rica.[29] Farther east in French Guiana, nesting is from March to August.[28] Atlantic leatherbacks nest between February and July from South Carolina in the United States to the United States Virgin Islands in the Caribbean and to Suriname and Guyana.[citation needed]